


Flipside

by SydneyHorses



Series: Glenn Lives AU [2]
Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Background Sylvix and Merciegrid, Discussion of Torture, Glenn Fraldarius Lives, M/M, Post-Azure Moon, Pre-Relationship, hand holding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-23
Updated: 2020-10-23
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:01:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,163
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27164926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SydneyHorses/pseuds/SydneyHorses
Summary: Glenn gets better in fits and starts, and the slow crawl towards health is difficult for Dimitri to watch, especially because of the way he emphasizes with such a thing. At the center of everything lurks the question of what exactly happened to Glenn. Despite himself, Dimitri is afraid to reach out.
Relationships: Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd/Glenn Fraldarius
Series: Glenn Lives AU [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1982845
Comments: 3
Kudos: 14





	Flipside

**Author's Note:**

> i didn't know there would be a sequel to the first dmgl thing i posted but here i am! i dont think it'll make much sense if you haven't read it yet, so read the first work in the series first! there will (hopefully) someday be a part three where they kiss, so keep an eye out for that!

It’s not all sweeping rescues and tears once they find him. They trade off sitting by Glenn’s bedside, praying for him to be lucid for more than a few minutes at a time. He wakes up one day in the midst of a nightmare so fierce that none of them can get him out of it. Glenn’s eyes are wide with horror, and he screams himself hoarse yelling for Dimitri to run.

It’s bad enough that Mercedes comes and pulls Dimitri out of a meeting, the tight line of her mouth telling him all he needs to know.

They hear Glenn far before they arrive at the infirmary.

Dimitri bursts in to howling, to Glenn screaming at Sylvain that they need to get Dimitri out of there. Sylvain is shaking, his face pale and his shoulders tight. Ingrid is off to the side, clutching herself like she might be sick. Felix stands in front of the bed, watching. He doesn’t speak. When Dimitri enters the room, Felix jerks his head up, and is across the room in two large steps.

“Dima,” the childhood nickname, long forgotten, falls from Felix’s lips like a prayer. “Dima, I- he won’t stop yelling for you. He won’t believe any of us.”

Dimitri knows the feeling. “I’m here now,” he says. Felix nods, his face still drawn tight with anxiety.

He settles a hand on Felix’s shoulder and squeezes, unsure of what to do when Felix doesn’t snarl and push him back. In the background, Glenn is still shouting.

Dimitri sweeps over to the bed, sitting down on the edge of it. When he’s trapped in his nightmares like this, he can’t tell what reality is. He can’t tell where he is, and no one ever knows to tell him.

He will not let the same thing happen to Glenn.

“Glenn,” he says, low and commanding.

Glenn’s head whips towards him, and a hand flies out to grasp at his arm. His eyes, always a piercing blue, are dark and unseeing. “King Lambert,” he gasps. “I- where’s Dimitri? We have to find him. He has to run. You have to run.”

On second thought, Dimitri doesn’t know if he can do this. He swallows. “Glenn,” he says softly. “You’re in the castle in Fhirdiad. You were injured, and in the infirmary. You’re safe.”

“I-” Glenn shakes his head.

“Yes,” Dimitri says, firm. He doesn’t know if this is the right thing to do. He doesn’t know what Glenn is seeing. But it’s what he would want, and until they find someone who can talk to him - who can talk to them both - about this sort of thing, who has experience of some sort with it, this is the best they can do. “You’re in Fhirdiad. You’re safe. You saved Dimitri.”

Glenn’s breath stutters. “He’s safe. Dimitri’s safe?”

If they hadn’t already killed all those who did this to Glenn, Dimitri would be on his way out of the room with Areadbhar grasped tight in his hand. As it is, he half wants to throw his lance into something anyways. Instead, he focuses all his energy on being gentle, and rests a hand on Glenn’s shoulder. Glenn jerks, then meets his gaze.

“You’re safe?”

If Dimitri still had a heart after all he’s done, it would be ruined by now. Even as he is, he feels utterly devastated. “Yes. And so are you.”

A long pause. The wild look starts to leave Glenn’s eyes. He nods. “You’re safe. I’m safe.”

“Yes,” Dimitri says.

All of the tension goes out of Glenn’s bones in an instant, and his eyes dip shut. “Let’s give him some space,” Mercedes says, kindly as ever. “It certainly wouldn’t hurt.”

They all look dreadful. Felix is holding Sylvain’s hand, and his other arm is around Ingrid’s shoulders, pulling her in tight against his side. Dimitri wishes Sylvain had a third arm to comfort him with. He thinks he could use it.

Mercedes takes a deep breath, looking at all of them with kind eyes. She glances over her shoulder to Glenn, clearly evaluating, then makes a shooing motion. “Alright. Let’s head out into the hallway.”

The four of them trail out into the hallway, Dimitri’s heart beating like it’s going to pop right out of his chest. “So,” Mercedes says serenely. “Glenn’s gone through a very tough time, and he’s still figuring everything out. It’s good that you were able to snap him out of it, but that can’t be the sort of thing we rely on.”

Ingrid ducks away from Sylvain to stand next to Mercedes, who wraps an arm around her waist and kisses the crown of her head. Dimitri remembers that he’s alone. On the other side of that door, Glenn is alone too, and scared. He must be scared. Dimitri was scared for so long. He’s just starting to remember what it’s like to wake up without feeling like the world is caving in around him.

“What do you think we should do?” Felix asks.

Mercedes tucks a loose strand of Ingrid’s hair behind her ears. “Well, I have a professor from the magic academy who might be able to help. She specializes in helping people who’ve undergone… difficult situations such as this. With your permission, Dimitri, I’d like to invite her to the castle to speak with Glenn in person.”

Dimitri nods. “Yes. Of course. Anything to help.” Mercedes kisses Ingrid’s forehead again, then ushers her back over to Sylvain. “I want to go check on him. Dimitri, if you’d come with me?”

Dimitri exchanges a confused look with Felix, then follows Mercedes back into the infirmary. She closes the door behind them, smoothing her hands over her skirts before sighing. “I want my friend from the academy to talk to you too.”

Dimitri’s face warms. “Oh. I do not see why that would be necessary.”

Mercedes narrows her eyes. “Are you seeing any of your ghosts?”

Mercedes always calls them his ghosts, which Dimitri appreciates. It makes them feel less like shadowy apparitions of his dead friends and family that are being sent to haunt him, and more like a slightly spooky story an adult is telling him. It’s a very kind gesture, and therefore very Mercedes.

“Not often,” he says. “Less so than usual.”

“So, yes?”

Dimitri’s shoulders droop. “Yes. Some.” Every now and then, he hears Edelgard’s voice. He can never quite understand what she’s saying, but perhaps someday he’ll understand. He can’t tell if that will be a blessing or a curse when it does happen. After all; he never understood her when she was alive either.

Mercedes reaches out and takes his hand. “It’s alright. Thank you for telling me.” Her voice is saccharine sweet and sincere, and Dimitri looks away from the force of her gaze. Such blatant affection is more than he can bear.

He’s used to Faerghus, with its coached words and double entendres. Telling people they care for him in such plain words seems almost beyond him. Still, as Dimitri looks at Mercedes’ soft, smiling face, he can’t help but think that perhaps it’s time for them to try.

-

Slowly but surely, Faerghus thaws. Part of Dimitri does as well. Sylvain goes back to Gautier, unable to justify more time away from a territory that sorely needs him. Annette writes long-winded letters about the magic research she’s doing with Lysithea, and Ashe shows up and cooks Dimitri and Felix dinner every night for a week. Dedue makes his first trip to Duscur since the end of the war and stays twice as long as he said he would.

On the day Felix goes back to Fraldarius, it rains. Logically, Dimitri knows it’s not a sign and has no secret, foreboding meaning.

Still, it feels like the world is trying to tell Dimitri something that he cannot put into words. He barely sees Felix at all that morning, having wisely decided to keep his distance from the infirmary. When Felix meets him at the front steps of the castle for Dimitri to see him off, his eyes are red and his shoulders are tight. Dimitri wishes it were years and years ago, and that he could hug Felix and tell him sincerely that everything would be alright.

“It doesn’t seem fair,” Felix says, looking out at the rain-soaked terrain that awaits him.

Dimitri’s chest tightens. “No, it isn’t.”

“He died thinking Glenn was dead…” Felix trails off, then sighs heavily. “It would have brought the old man some amount of peace, to know he yet lived.”

Dimitri hadn’t even thought about Rodrigue. What a callous creature he is. “He would be proud,” he says. “To know that both of his sons live.”

Felix grunts. “It’s been some time since he was proud of me.”

“We both know that’s not true,” Dimitri says.

Felix crosses his arms and doesn’t respond. Tentatively, Dimitri reaches out and places a hand on Felix’s shoulder. Felix doesn’t shrug him off, and Dimitri smiles. It’s not much, but it’s progress. “I’ll write you with any updates on his condition,” Dimitri promises.

Felix sighs. “I know.”

“I’ll have him write to you as soon as he is able.”

Felix nods, once, jerkily. “Very well.”

He steps away from Dimitri, heading down the steps to the waiting retinue below. He stops before he’s halfway down, though, and turns, looking back at Dimitri. “Take care of him.”

“I will,” Dimitri promises. “I will.” He doesn’t know how to sound sincere enough; he can only hope that the extent with which he means his words shines through. 

Felix nods, again, and then continues down the stairs. This time, he doesn’t look back. Dimitri heads back inside with a heavy heart, the burden of keeping Glenn safe placed squarely on his shoulders, despite what anyone else may say.

-

The castle is quiet, with most of the others gone. Ingrid has thrown herself back into her knight training, and although Dimitri knows that she must visit Glenn often, he rarely sees her in the infirmary. Mercedes is there, of course, tending to Glenn and doing everything she can to aid in his recovery, but there are many solitary nights where Dimitri brings his paperwork into the infirmary and works while Glenn sleeps.

He’s stronger every day, although his hair shows no sign of returning to his natural color. Instead, it remains bone white, haunting Dimitri like a ghost. It’s so like Edelgard’s, and he wants to ask. He needs to ask. The question is on the tip of his tongue every time Glenn is awake, but still - he cannot.

If Mercedes knows, she doesn’t tell him.

Instead, Dimitri keeps writing letters and reports by Glenn’s bedside, the dim light of the candles surrounding the two of them in a soft yellow glow.

“You work too much,” Glenn says, sitting up as best he can so as to peer down at the papers in Dimitri’s lap.

Dimitri looks up, blinking the exhaustion out of his eyes. “This is the first time Fodlan has been unified in hundreds of years. I do not know if it’s possible to work too much.”

Glenn scowls. “It is. Stop being contrary.”

He sounds so much like his brother sometimes. Dimitri laughs, soft and fond. “Well then, what would have me do? It needs to get done, and some of this information is secret, or highly specialized. Who else to do it, if not me?”

Glenn collapses back onto the bed. “Just don’t do it. Fuck them.”

Dimitri laughs, unexpected and boisterous. Glenn flinches away from the noise, then seems to settle back into his skin, relaxing and easing back against his sheets. Dimitri files away the reaction for later inspection, when he’s alone and plagued by nightmares of what exactly Glenn could have gone through. “I don’t believe that’s an option.”

“Of course it’s an option,” Glenn says. “You just don’t want it to be one.”

Dimitri sets his inkwell to the side, carefully placing the stack of papers on Glenn’s bedside table. After making sure there’s no way for the candle to accidentally fall and ruin the evening’s work, he scoots his chair a little closer to Glenn’s bedside. “There. I’ve set it all aside for the night.”

A flicker of surprise crosses Glenn’s face. “So you did.”

“What now?” Dimitri asks, smiling softly.

Glenn brushes his hair out of his face. It’s far longer than it was when they first found him in that wretched place, the strands in front coming down past his chin and framing his face. Mercedes offered to cut it, but he’d refused, citing that he hasn’t been allowed to do whatever he liked with his hair in sometimne. Dimitri finds that he rather likes it long. Glenn said he’s planning on growing it out until he gets tired of it, and then he’ll cut it and do something else. Dimitri is looking forward to seeing the results of Glenn’s complete freedom.

“I don’t know,” Glenn says. “Honestly, I didn’t think you were going to stop working. I didn’t know it was that easy.”

Dimitri shrugs and ducks his head. “Anything for you.”

The faintest shadow of a smile crosses Glenn’s face, there and gone so fast that Dimitri thinks perhaps he’s imagined it. “Is that so?”

Dimitri’s face feels warm. Why does his face feel warm? He must be imagining it. It’s foolish. The candle is too close, perhaps. Glenn watches him with an odd expression, and Dimitri tries to come up with some idea of what it means. 

“How are you feeling?” he says, instead.

The expression falls from Glenn’s face and he misses it as soon as it’s gone. “Ah.” A sigh. “Well enough, I suppose. Exhausted and weak. Angry.” His mouth twists. “It hurts, still. All these years, and I’m surprised that it still hurts.”

Dimitri’s breath catches in his throat. “Glenn… what happened?”

“Hmph.” Glenn looks down at the thin blanket covering him. “Mercedes really didn’t tell you, did she?” Dimitri shakes his head. Glenn sighs. “You know that I was captured after Duscur. By - what was it you called them? Those Who Slither in the Dark? Goddess, that’s a stupid name.”

Something like a laugh forces its weigh out of Dimitri’s throat. “Yes, that’s right. We found the name amongst Hubert’s papers.”

“I have no clue who that is,” Glenn says, somehow managing to sound both annoyed and tired.

“Of course.” Dimitri grimaces. “Go on.”

“They took me below ground with them.” Glenn’s expression has gone from annoyed to unmoored in a moment’s time, and he draws patterns aimlessly on the blanket with his fingers. “There were whole weeks where I never saw the sunlight. They were excited, you see - they’d done similar experiments, but never on someone without a crest. I was a fortunate capture.” His voice is slow and melancholy, the words coming slower and slower the longer he talks. Still, his fingers draw indistinguishable patterns on thin cotton.

“The pain was excruciating, of course. I’d been in battles, I’d been badly wounded, even, but I didn’t know what it was to feel pain before that.” His expression clouds over even further; he’s going somewhere Dimitri can’t see. “It worked, after rounds of failed experiments. They’d managed to pump a crest into my blood, and they couldn’t have been happier about it.” He laughs, hollow and broken and not at all present. “I thought they would let me go, after it worked. I don’t know why I was so naive. I was a child, still. When I was knighted, I thought fifteen was an impressive age. At seventeen, I thought myself more impressive still. But there… I was a child, and a fool, and I would’ve been better off dead.”

“Glenn,” Dimitri says. “I - you don’t have to tell me.”

Glenn startles at his voice, looking up and making hazy, unfocused eye contact with Dimitri. “You asked.”

“It hurts you,” Dimitri replies, “to talk about it. We don’t have to if it hurts you.”

“Still the same prince,” Glenn whispers, his voice low and distant. “It’s good they got me instead of you. You would have been a glorious weapon.”

This time, it is Dimitri who flinches away. Glenn looks - dangerous. There’s a smile on his face that doesn’t quite fit, too wide for his narrow, sharp features. His hand still draws patterns on his bed, and his eyes are not the calm blue they should be. Instead, they’re cold and unseeing.

Dimitri takes Glenn’s hand. “Glenn!”

His friend, his knight, flinches, but Dimitri holds on tight and waits for recognition to bloom behind Glenn’s eyes. The tension in the room is so thick Dimitri could choke on it. It only starts to dissipate when Glenn’s terrible smile fades from his face, and slowly his eyes go back to the warm, clear blue that Dimitri has always known them to be.

“Sorry,” Glenn says. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Of course,” Dimitri says. He knows all about unspeakable things.

He’s still holding Glenn’s hand. His skin is warm to the touch, and he rather likes the way that his hand fits in his palm. Glenn, like Felix, is shorter than him, but he has long, wiry limbs and sharp features. You could cut yourself to pieces on both of the Fraldarius boys - they are so like their mother, in that regard.

Glenn takes a deep breath. “There’s an old myth, you know.” He twists his hand, lacing his fingers with Dimitri’s. Glenn’s hands are scarred, with callouses from who knows what and gnarled, weathered fingers. They’re not the soft hands of a privileged noble or the worn hands of a knight. No - there’s suffering written into every line of Glenn’s hands, and try as he might, Dimitri will never be able to take it all away.

“Oh?” Dimitri asks.

“About kings.” Glenn looks up at him, blue eyes full of an emotion Dimitri can’t quite read. “They say that the best ones have healing hands.”

Dimitri forces himself to laugh. “Then I am not the best of kings. I have little talent for healing magic. I’m just as apt to break something further.” 

“You didn’t break me,” Glenn replies. “Just now.” His gaze hardens. “Don’t speak of yourself in such a way.”

This time, Dimitri’s laugh does not feel so forced. “I will endeavor not to do so.”

Glenn sighs. “Good.” He squeezes Dimitri’s hand, and it’s lovely enough that Dimitri squeezes his back. Glenn’s mouth quirks. “I’m going to sleep now,” he says, closing his eyes. “I don’t care if you stay or not.”

That can’t be true. He wouldn’t say anything if he truly had no opinion. Dimitri smiles, even though Glenn cannot see him, and squeezes his hand again. “I believe I’ve been told to put my work aside for the night.”

Glenn says nothing, but the small smile that tugs at his mouth is all the reward Dimitri needs.

**Author's Note:**

> follow me on twitter @edelgardlesbian !


End file.
